Halo: Uprising #3Review

Share.

Can we finish the fight yet?

By Jesse Schedeen

Welcome to an IGN Comics review. If you've been here before, you know the drill. If you haven't, here's how it works. We grade on a 100-point scale. Numerically this is represented as a 10 point system with 0.1 increments. These scores also translate to particular labels. To learn more about our rating system, look for the red link near our final score at the bottom. For trade, arcs and manga reviews, we'll comment on art and writing along with a final score. Weekly books get a faster treatment due to their shorter length.

One thing to keep in mind is sometimes we'll provide you with multiple reviews and multiple scores. The Additional Take reviewers have their scores listed directly after their opinion. The Final Score is not affected by this and is directly determined by the Main Reviewer (who is listed in the article's byline).

Feel like commenting on the review? You can find our comments section at the end of the review. Our review indices also have a comments section if you feel the need to call us bias (which many of you do). Feel free to visit our message boards to chat about comics in general, and you can click here to write your own reader reviews.

Enjoy!

I'm a firm believer that, when a series is delayed long enough, a publisher is better off just giving up on the whole monthly thing and waiting to ship the trade. Halo: Uprising is definitely one of those cases. We're looking at a series that serves as a prequel for a game that came out a year ago. The fact that the third issue is only just now rolling around is unacceptable. I don't know what led to the incredible delays on this book, as neither Brian Michael Bendis nor Alex Maleev have a reputation for such things. All I know is that Uprising isn't nearly memorable enough to put up with these delays.

The idea of having one of the greatest collaborative teams in modern comics handling a Halo story sounded great originally. In practice, this team fails to bring their A-game. A large part of the problem is Bendis's choice to focus more on two lowly humans than Master Chief or the UNSC soldiers. Ruwan and his new lady friend Myras aren't especially memorable. Apparently their blossoming romance is meant to be an integral part of the story, and yet I only remember that fact because the recap page told me so. Myras barely even factors into this issue except when she shoots at Covenant soldiers.

Master Chief does show up to redeem the issue somewhat. The only problem here is that his mission centers around killing the Prophet of Truth, and the very nature of this comic makes it obvious he won't, regardless if you've played Halo 3 or not. All that's really left is to sit back and enjoy watching Chief blow aliens to shreds. That works for a while, at least. Alex Maleev's work is mostly strong. It's interesting to see him on a Halo book, as the series doesn't necessarily play to his strengths. My main problem with the art is th heavy use of blacks, which tend to obscure the finer details of each panel.

It's almost amusing to see Chief gravitate towards weapons like the Mauler and Bubble Shield in his battles, as if Bungie made that a specific story requirement. Actually, I'm pretty certain they did. Once the thrill of seeing Alex Maleev doodle master Chief wears off, the comic comes across as more of a promotional tool than a legitimate, worthwhile story. And considering there's nothing left for Bungie to promote, one has to wonder why anyone is even bothering anymore.